Emergency calls from extreme heat in Southern California rise

A 46-year-old woman walking a trail at the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park called for help Sunday when weakness and nausea from the heat overwhelmed her shortly after 9 a.m.

Los Angeles County firefighters met her at the bottom of the trail and helped cool her down with water and air conditioning.

"It's a hot day and people just aren't accustomed to it," said L.A. County fire Capt. Richard Stillwagon.

It was the latest in a surge of calls some fire agencies have been experiencing during the Southland's heat wave, one that is expected to begin tapering off today.

Sunday was a scorcher, but according to the National Weather Service, no records highs were broken in San Bernardino County. In Los Angeles County, though, it was a different story.

A record high temperature of 115 degrees was set Sunday in Lancaster, breaking the old record of 110 degrees set in 1950, and the old record high for any month of 114, set on both July 18 and 19, 1960, the Weather Service reported.

Palmdale's 111 degrees matched the record high set in 1994, according to the NWS.

San Bernardino reached 108 degrees before noon and Redlands was at 109 degrees by 1 p.m. In Ontario, the high was 104, the National Weather Service reported.

Some L.A. County highs Sunday, according to the NWS: 99 in San Fernando, 105 in San Gabriel, 114 in Woodland Hills, 100 in Pasadena and 97 in West Covina.

That followed an equally hot Saturday, when temperatures broke records around the area. Cities such as Big Bear Lake, Riverside and Lake Elsinore edged out previous high temperatures for the date, but weather officials say other areas, such as the San Gabriel Valley, did not.

The San Bernardino County Coroner's Office reported no deaths related to the heat wave. Los Angeles County coroner's officials were unsure about deaths on Saturday, but said there were none Sunday.

Area hospitals could not quantify the number of heat-related illnesses they've encountered because other medical issues could be exacerbated by the heat.

But San Bernardino County fire officials said they have seen an increase in medical calls.

"We've definitely had a lot more heat-related calls than normal," said spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.

And the calls have been spread out throughout the county, including the San Bernardino Mountains.

"It's not just the high heat, but it's the humidity," Martinez said. "A lot of the people in the High Desert and mountains are not used to this humidity."

Firefighters even came to the Mayhem Festival in Devore on Saturday to help several concertgoers who became ill from the heat.

Steve Little of Redlands, who showed up at 11 a.m. and planned to stay late into the evening, said he didn't see anyone hauled away by medical personnel and that people were coping with the weather the best they could.

"Everybody was just grabbing every bit of shade they could," he said.

The L.A. County Fire Department beefed up staff for the weekend in anticipation of a rise in heat-related medical calls, but fire officials said the number of calls had been very low.